What is the Care Act
The
Care Act 2014 sets out the vision for adults in England who need care and support.
The act aims to:
- make care and support clearer and fairer
- promote people’s wellbeing; enable people to prevent and delay the need for care and support
- put people in control of their lives so they can pursue opportunities to realise their potential
The act outlines a single national eligibility threshold for care and support and is in three parts:
- Care and support
- Care standards
- Health
This guide will focus on part 1 - care and support, which consolidated and modernised care and support legislation introducing additional duties for local authorities and additional rights for service users and carers.
Why the Care Act was introduced
The Act was introduced to be both a reforming piece of legislation (it changes the law) and a consolidating piece of legislation (it repeals many previous laws relating to care and support and replaces them with this Act).
The government's vision in the Care Act was to redefine the relationship between the state, local authorities, citizens, service users, and carers with the expectation that we all think differently about adult social care:
- to ask "what can you do for yourself, within your local community, to help meet your own care needs?"
- rather than "how much care and support do you need?" and "what can the state do for you?"
Under the Care Act, local authorities must ensure that people who live in their areas:
- receive services that prevent their care needs from becoming more serious or delay the impact of their needs
- can get the information and advice they need to make good decisions about care and support
- have a range of high-quality, appropriate services to choose from
Duties and functions for local authorities in the Act
The duties and functions for local authorities include:
Promotion of wellbeing duty
Personal dignity; physical and mental health and wellbeing; protection from abuse and neglect etc.;
The prevention duty
Arranging services or taking other steps to prevent, reduce or delay people's need for care and support;
Provide information and advice
Essential in enabling people to take control and make informed choices about their own care and support needs – there is the
Leeds Directory in place to support this;
Assessment
Using a person centred approach to identify the needs and outcomes adults wish to achieve in their day to day lives; includes the duty to carry out a needs assessment regardless of the level of the adult's needs or their level of financial resources;
Eligibility
Decided through the
National Eligibility Criteria. The criteria includes physical or mental impairment or illness; unable to achieve one or more defined outcomes; as a consequence likely to be a significant impact on their wellbeing;
Carers assessment and provision of services
Carers Leeds provide information, advice and support to Carers. Where a Carer's assessment is needed, this is carried out by Adult Social Care;
Young carers
Assessments of young carers to establish whether they are: able and willing to care now and when they turn 18; and work or participate in education training or recreation or wish to do so;
Prisoners (adults)
Duty to assess and provide care and support. Includes prisons, approved premises and bail hostels;
Safeguarding
Duty to protect from abuse and neglect. The Act cited some other areas of abuse: Modern slavery;
Domestic Abuse and Self Neglect;
Transitions
Person centred assessments at the right time so that the local authority can anticipate the needs of the young person as an adult. This includes: young people: with a learning or physical disability; who have a sensory impairment; in Young Offender Institutions, Secure Children's Homes, Secure Training Centres or other places of detention as well as in the youth justice system; or who are vulnerable to a range of risks and vulnerabilities such as
Child sexual exploitation.
Other duties and functions relate to: Self funders; Duty to promote integration; Charging; and Shaping the market through commissioning.
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